The World Wide Telecom Web (WWTW) (also known as Spoken Web) is emerging as an alternate web for the under-privileged, navigable entirely through a voice based interface using an ordinary telephone. A node in the WWTW graph is a voice application called a VoiceSite and is accessible over a simple phone call. VoiceSites may be hyperlinked through Hyperspeech Transfer Protocol (HSTP) or through an ordinary call transfer facility of telephony networks.
A VoiceSite is formed by one or more VoicePages (for example, VoiceXML files) that are hosted and co-located in the network. VoiceSites contain information or the application flow with which a user can interact by spoken language. Subscribers can expose custom information and services through VoiceSites. Individual users and enterprises can also set up personal and enterprise VoiceSites. Links between these sites creates a network of VoiceSites.
A VoiceSite is represented by an associated phone number and can be accessed from any touch-tone phone instrument (which can include mobiles and most landlines) through an ordinary phone call to that number. A VoiceSite could be an individual's VoiceSite in which case it gets deployed against his phone number. In situations, where a VoiceSite represents a group, it gets deployed against a phone number accessible to the entire group. Additionally, VoiceSites can be created through the use of other special VoiceSites. These creator VoiceSites are referred to as meta-VoiceSites.
However, several challenges need to be addressed for large scale development, deployment, inter-working and usability of such VoiceSites. For example, the set of users that need to be supported vary from software developers to illiterate rural farmers. Also, the fact that the primary user interface is voice based and over telephony presents its own challenges and opportunities. Further, most existing voice application frameworks make it difficult to separate navigational flow from process flow, making systematic application development even more difficult.